France Cadet: in the “robotic moment”

The 9th edition of the Gamerz-Festival in Aix-en-Provence is on show until 20th October, presenting a selection of recent work by France Cadet, the artist who won First Prize in VIDA 6.0 with her installation Dog[Lab] 01. Through a series of installations, digital photographs and a sculpture made with a 3D printer, Cadet questions the current relationship between humans and robots while considering possible future scenarios.

In her book Alone Together (2011), sociologist and psychologist Sherry Turkle suggests that we are living in the “robotic moment”, a state of emotional readiness to maintain intimate relationships with robots. France Cadet explores this possibility in works such as Cyber Lesson #32, in which the artist herself is converted into a robot who becomes involved in an erotic game, and Robot mon amour, in which she reinvents herself as a cyborg, blurring the boundaries between human and robot, between natural and artificial reality. The exhibition also includes a series of works in which Cadet continues to develop the connection between the domestication of animals and the servitude of robots using Aibo robotic dogs, which she modifies to alter their appearance and behaviour. In some of these pieces, the artist sets up a game with viewers, who can use their mobile phones to discover the internal structure of one of these robot dogs.

Using references to the science fiction novels of Philip K. Dick, the work of Donna Haraway, popular culture, biology and robotics, France Cadet produces a work which beguiles even as it offers a reflection on the future development of artificial life.